Flutter - Pass state change function to child widget and update state - flutter

I am new to flutter and building a sample app to learn it. In the above screenshot, I have created multiple widgets. My main widget contains the following widget.
Boy Girl Selector
Common Card
CounterButton (Plus or Minus)
Calculate Button
My main widget has two counter - age & weight.
CommonCard has below property :
incrementFunction() : I am setting this value from MainWidget as below.
decrementFunction()
ageIncrement() {
setState(() {
age++;
});
}
ageDecrement() {
setState(() {
age--;
});
}
value : age declared in main widget is passed to this value.
CounterButton has below property.
onPressed: increment or decrement function from parent widget is passed here through card widget.
If I keep whole code in main widget then it is working properly. But if I create multiple widget and pass increment and decrement function as argument in child widget onPressed on plus and minus is not working propely. Please share your thoughts. I am missing some fundamental of communication between child and parent widget.

There are different ways to achieve what you like as there are a couple of different state management techniques such as Dependency Injection, ChangeNotifier, BLoC, and so on (search for Flutter State Management for more details).
Here's an example of how you can achieve this on the famous counter example. This example is using dependency injection (we are passing the increment function to the a child widget as callback function). You can copy the code and past it on DartPad to quickly test it and see how it works:
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() => runApp(MyApp());
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
debugShowCheckedModeBanner: false,
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
#override
_MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
int _counter = 0;
void incrementCounter() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(widget.title),
),
body: Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
Text(
'$_counter',
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.display1,
),
SizedBox(height: 50),
MySecondButton(secondButtonIncrement: incrementCounter),
],
),
),
floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: incrementCounter,
tooltip: 'Increment',
child: Icon(Icons.add),
),
);
}
}
class MySecondButton extends StatelessWidget {
MySecondButton({Key key, this.secondButtonIncrement}) : super(key: key);
final VoidCallback secondButtonIncrement;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return FlatButton(
child: Text("Second Button"),
onPressed: () {
secondButtonIncrement();
},
color: Colors.blue);
}
}
I hope that helps.

Related

How to interact with a child Stateful Widget from a parent Stateless Widget?

Context :
Say I have a custom DisplayElapsedTime Widget which is Stateful and holds a Text Widget. With a Timer, every 1sec, the text value is updated with the current elapsed time given by a Stopwatch.
And now, say I have a page which is Stateless and has the DisplayElapsedTime Widget as a child.
What I would like to do :
On the click of a "Start" button in my page, I would like to start the DisplayElapsedTime (which means starting the Stopwatch and the Timer).
From my page, I would also like to have access to the elapsed time value of the Stopwatch "whenever I want".
Why I am having a hard time :
So far (see: I use Stateless Widget alongside BLoC almost everytime. Am I wrong?), I have almost always worked with Stateless Widget alongside the pattern BLoC and never used Stateful. Currently, having extremely long and complex Widgets, I am starting to sense the "limits" of not using the better of the two worlds. But I don't quite fully understand how the Widgets should be interacting between one another.
I really cannot find the solution to my problem anywhere (or am really bad at searching). However, surely, I cannot be the first person to want to have "control" over a Stateful Widget from a Stateless Widget, right ?
Thank you so much in advance for any help.
If I understand your question correctly, let me try to explain this using the most familiar app of all time, the beginning counter app.
This snippet contains a single StatefulWidget that controls its ability to rebuild using its setState method _incrementCounter. So, the value is incremented and the widget is rebuilt whenever the StatefulWidget calls the setState method inside itself.
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() {
runApp(const MyApp());
}
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
const MyApp({super.key});
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: const MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
const MyHomePage({super.key, required this.title});
final String title;
#override
State<MyHomePage> createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
int _counter = 0;
void _incrementCounter() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(widget.title),
),
body: Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
const Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
Text(
'$_counter',
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.headlineMedium,
),
],
),
),
floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: _incrementCounter,
tooltip: 'Increment',
child: const Icon(Icons.add),
), // This trailing comma makes auto-formatting nicer for build methods.
);
}
}
A StatefulWidget can fully rebuild itself, and when doing so, it may also rebuild all its children downstream of it in the widget tree (but not always, as const widgets are not rebuilt). To get another widget to rebuild a parent widget (upstream of it in the widget tree), you need to have that StatefulWidget's setState function. This can be done using a callback function. A callback function is made by the parent widget and passed to a child widget. So, in the following example, I have made a StatelessWidget with a button, which controls its parent widget because it calls its parent's callback function; notice that I give:
ExampleStlessWidget(counter: _counter, fx: _incrementCounter),
and not:
ExampleStlessWidget(counter: _counter, fx: _incrementCounter()),
Passing _incrementCounter() with the parenthesis calls it at the moment it is passed, while _incrementCounter allows it to be called downstream in the widget tree.
Use the callback function in the child widget by calling it anywhere (notice the parentheses).
onPressed: () {
fx();
},
Here is the new code
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() {
runApp(const MyApp());
}
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
const MyApp({super.key});
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: const MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
const MyHomePage({super.key, required this.title});
final String title;
#override
State<MyHomePage> createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
int _counter = 0;
void _incrementCounter() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(widget.title),
),
body: ExampleStlessWidget(counter: _counter, fx: _incrementCounter),
);
}
}
class ExampleStlessWidget extends StatelessWidget {
const ExampleStlessWidget({
super.key,
required int counter,
required this.fx,
}) : _counter = counter;
final int _counter;
final Function fx;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Column(
children: [
Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
const Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
Text(
'$_counter',
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.headlineMedium,
),
],
),
),
ElevatedButton(
onPressed: () {
fx();
},
child: const Text('Click me'),
),
],
);
}
}
A bloc involves an inherited widget, which allows for monitoring the state throughout the widget tree and rebuilds widgets depending on that state. So, a bloc doesn't need a StatefulWidget to change UI. It would help if you did not look at one tool's ability to rebuild widgets as bad or good. It would be best to look at StatefulWidgets and BLoC as different tools for different jobs.
I hope this helps. Happy coding.

How to pass variables between 2 different files and manipulate them

I am learning flutter, and I would like to know how to pass a variable or a method between 2 different files (to add additional widgets).
In my example, I took the code provided by flutter when we create a new project, to this code, I added a second file called "second.dart" in which I get the variable "_counter" in the file main "main.dart" which I multiply by 10.
main.dart
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'second.dart';
void main() {
runApp(MyApp());
}
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
#override
_MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
int _counter = 0;
void _incrementCounter() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(widget.title),
),
body: Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
Text(
'$_counter',
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.headline4,
),
Container(
child: Second(),
),
],
),
),
floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: _incrementCounter,
tooltip: 'Increment',
child: Icon(Icons.add),
), // This trailing comma makes auto-formatting nicer for build methods.
);
}
}
second.dart
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'main.dart';
class Second extends StatefulWidget {
#override
_SecondState createState() => _SecondState();
}
class _SecondState extends State<Second> {
int counter10 = _MyHomePageState._counter * 10;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Container(
color: Colors.red,
width: 200,
height: 300,
child: Text('My increment * 10 : $counter10 '),
);
}
}
however, I have this error."_MyHomePageState" is highlighted in red.
lib/second.dart:11:18: Error: Getter not found: '_MyHomePageState'.
var counter10 =_MyHomePageState._counter * 10;
Thank you for your help
See this isn't the way how we pass variables to the other files or other widgets. To create a widget you need to choose between stateful or stateless if you want to manipulate state from inside of the Second class declare it as a stateful but in your case you need to have a stateless widget.
For Example this:
class Second extends StatelessWidget {
final int counter;
const Second({Key key, this.counter}) : super(key: key);
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Container(
color: Colors.red,
width: 200,
height: 300,
child: Text('My increment * 10 : ${counter * 10} '));
}
}
And Pass this variable from your first that is like this :
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'second.dart';
void main() {
runApp(MyApp());
}
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
#override
_MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
int _counter = 0;
void _incrementCounter() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(widget.title),
),
body: Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
Text(
'$_counter',
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.headline4,
),
Container(
child: Second(counter:_counter),
),
],
),
),
floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: _incrementCounter,
tooltip: 'Increment',
child: Icon(Icons.add),
), // This trailing comma makes auto-formatting nicer for build methods.
);
}
}
Note : You can share normal variables by referring them across classes but they shouldn't be private eg have an _ in front of them. Another thing even if you share your variable it wont have any effect on the Second Page directly as flutter doesn't know that it is changing and rather just treat it as an instance.
You can share static data using classes:
example
class AppStrings {
static Color appColor = Colors.blue;
}
And later refer to it as AppStrings.appColor
There are some points that you should do in your codes:
when we use underscore as the first character of the variable name, it means that this variable is private! so you can not use int counter10 = _MyHomePageState._counter * 10; in the second widget!
if you want to pass variables to the child widget, you need to create a constructor as follow:
class Second extends StatefulWidget {
int counter;
Second(this.counter);
#override
_SecondState createState() => _SecondState();
}
now you can pass _countre variable to the Second widget:
Container(
child: Second(_counter),
),
please let me know if there is any problem or error.

Can I change the body of a widget using setState?

My application has scaffold.
But I want to change only the body of scaffold.
Normally I use setState() to change the state, but in this case, How can I use setState() or I can do some other way??
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() => runApp(MyApp());
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
#override
_MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}
void onTapped() {
print ("tapped");
// I want to change only body of Scaffold like this
// body: new Text("new body");
};
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(widget.title),
),
body:
GestureDetector(
onTap: () => onTapped(),
child:Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
],
),
),
),
);
}
}
If you want to just setState within the body of the scaffold, make the body a stateful widget and call setState within that widget. You can define your own stateless and stateful widgets by extending StatelessWidget or StatefulWidget. It is useful to define a particular thing as its own widget instead of just as a method that returns a widget because of how Flutter compartmentalizes the rebuilding process. If the body of the scaffold is its own widget, only that widget will be rebuilt when you call setState. If you do what the other answer suggests, you will rebuild MyHomePage, which includes the scaffold. On the other hand, if you define a stateful widget with a smaller scope, and then call setState() within that widget, only the widget with the smaller scope will be rebuilt.
For example:
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() => runApp(MyApp());
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatelessWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
print('scaffold rebuilt');
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(title),
),
body: ScaffoldBody(),
);
}
}
class ScaffoldBody extends StatefulWidget {
#override
_ScaffoldBodyState createState() => _ScaffoldBodyState();
}
class _ScaffoldBodyState extends State<ScaffoldBody> {
int timesTapped = 0;
void onTapped() {
setState(() {
timesTapped++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
print('scaffold body rebuilt');
return GestureDetector(
onTap: onTapped,
child: Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times: $timesTapped',
),
],
),
),
);
}
}
You can create a variable Widget _scaffoldBody; to hold the current Scaffold body.
You set an initial value to it, and then call setState when you need to change the body.
Something like this:
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
Widget _scaffoldBody;
#override
void initState(){
// Initialize it with the first body you want visible.
_scaffoldBody = GestureDetector(
onTap: () => onTapped(),
child:Center(
child: Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
],
),
),
);
}
// Note: move the onTapped method inside the state so you can call setState;
void onTapped()
// Call setState changing the body
setState((){
_scaffoldBody = Text("new body");
});
};
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text(widget.title),
),
body: _scaffoldBody,
);
}
}

Stateful Widget child is not updated

There are two stateful widgets.
The state of MyHomePage contains the counter.
The MyHomePage wraps content in a second stateful widget SubPage.
The SubPage has a child widget with data from the MyHomePage.
To clarify the problem, the first textwidget which is inside of the SubPage child doesn't update when the counter changes.
The textwidget outside of the SubPage increments as expected.
What do we have to do if we want the content of the inner stateful widget updated?
We have to use a stateful widget there. In the real application this widget has a real use-case.
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() => runApp(new MyApp());
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: new ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: new MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
#override
_MyHomePageState createState() => new _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
int _counter = 0;
void _incrementCounter() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Scaffold(
appBar: new AppBar(
title: new Text(widget.title),
),
body: Column(
children: <Widget>[
SubPage(
child: new Center(
child: new Column(
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
children: <Widget>[
new Text(
'You have pushed the button this many times:',
),
new Text(
'$_counter',
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.display1,
),
],
),
),
),
new Text(
'$_counter',
style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.display1,
),
],
),
floatingActionButton: new FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: _incrementCounter,
tooltip: 'Increment',
child: new Icon(Icons.add),
), // This trailing comma makes auto-formatting nicer for build methods.
);
}
}
class SubPage extends StatefulWidget {
SubPage({Key key, this.child}) : super(key: key);
final Widget child;
#override
SubPageState createState() => new SubPageState(child);
}
class SubPageState extends State<SubPage> {
final Widget child;
SubPageState(this.child);
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
print("subpage build");
return this.child;
}
}
You don't have to set child as field of state. Actually it is cause of this bug. Here working code
class SubPage extends StatefulWidget {
SubPage({Key key, this.child}) : super(key: key);
final Widget child;
#override
SubPageState createState() => new SubPageState();
}
class SubPageState extends State<SubPage> {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return widget.child;
}
}

show/hide a widget without recreating it

Let's say I have 2 cards and one is shown on screen at a time. I have a button that replaces the current card with other cards. Now assume that there is some data on card 1 and some data on card 2 and I don't want to destroy the data on each of them or I don't want to rebuild any of them again.
I tried using Stack Widget and overlapping one on top of others with a boolean on the top card. The value of this boolean is reversed by calling setstate when the button is pressed. The issue is as soon as I press the button, the new card rebuilds all over again and then shown or initState is called again, which I don't want. Any Solution?
EDIT: Sample Code:
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() => runApp(new MyApp());
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
// This widget is the root of your application.
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new MaterialApp(
title: 'Flutter Demo',
theme: new ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: new MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
);
}
}
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);
final String title;
#override
_MyHomePageState createState() => new _MyHomePageState();
}
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
var toggleFlag = false;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Scaffold(
appBar: new AppBar(
title: new Text(widget.title),
),
body: new Center(
child: toggleFlag
? CustomWidget(color: Colors.blue)
: CustomWidget(color: Colors.red),
),
floatingActionButton: new FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: _toggleCard,
tooltip: 'Increment',
child: new Icon(Icons.add),
), // This trailing comma makes auto-formatting nicer for build methods.
);
}
void _toggleCard() {
setState(() {
toggleFlag = !toggleFlag;
});
}
}
class CustomWidget extends StatefulWidget {
var color;
CustomWidget({this.color});
#override
State<StatefulWidget> createState() {
return new MyState();
}
}
class MyState extends State<CustomWidget> {
#override //I don't want this to be called again and again
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Container(
height: 100.0,
width: 100.0,
color: widget.color,
);
}
}
1-Solution:
You have an array of widgets like this
final widgetList[widget1(), widget2()]
int currentIndex = 0;
IndexedStack (
   index: currentIndex,
   children: widgetList,
 ));
2-Solution:
With the Stack widget
int currentIndex = 0;
Stack(
children: [
Offstage(
offstage: currentIndex != 0,
child: bodyList[0],
),
Offstage(
offstage: currentIndex != 1,
child: bodyList[1],
),
Offstage(
offstage: currentIndex != 2,
child: bodyList[2],
),
],
)
3-Solution:
You need to add this to your stateful widget state
AutomaticKeepAliveClientMixin <Widgetname> like this
class _WidgetState extends State <Widgetname> with AutomaticKeepAliveClientMixin <Widgetname> {
#override
   bool get wantKeepAlive => true;
}
just wrap that Widget inside a Visibility widget then set "maintainSate" to true
Visibility(
visible: toggleFlag,
maintainState: true,
child: const CustomWidget(),
)
Stateless widgets are always considered to be perishable. If you want to preserve state, use a StatefulWidget and a State subclass.